One of these fabulous moments of consecutive days off usually falls at the beginning of December. We are lucky in Navarra because we get an extra day off, I'm not sure why, but we do. So, in 2013, we had a 4-5 day weekend, followed by a 3 day weekend. Inaki and I decided to go south. We rented a Fiat 500, threw some clothes in the back and zipped from town to town for a few days.
We started off in Salamanca for an evening before getting into Espana profunda (deep Spain, meaning hick-weirdness all about). We checked into our hotel and strolled through town for the evening. The main plaza in Salamanca is known as the best in Spain. It was built for beauty and functionality. Here are a couple of shots.
Charming, charming, charming! That night for dinner, we had the intention of going to a restaurant we'd read about, but after getting a couple beers with free tapas, we were full. The first place we went was a bit off the main drag and called "My Father's Bar", or something like that. We walked in and the space was maybe as big as our living room. The guy behind the bar grabbed us a couple bottles of beer and asked if we wanted a snack to go with it. We said sure and he fired up this tiny grill that he had and soon some lovely smells were floating through the air. Here's what we got for free with our beers.
A fried egg, crispy fried pancetta (which is just thick bacon here), a couple of slices of morcilla (blood sausage) and 2 huge hunks of bread. This was our first and probably best tapa of the whole trip. The morcilla, as you get further south, has less rice in it and starts to get spicier. This one tasted like a black bean paste, so yummy and nice to get some spice!
We cruised to a couple more places closer into town and had great treatment at the second place, but the third was kind of famous and way over priced. It's called "Tapa 2.0" I think and it's famous for eggs. The food was ok, but expensive and a little cold actually. We had a potato puree with an egg on top that we could have made at home for a lot less. Anyway, not recommended. We rolled around Salamanca for the rest of the evening, checking out the university, which is one of the oldest in the world and the cathedral.
Can you find the frog in the picture above?
The next morning we got up refreshed and ready to drive. We went through some Spanish countryside and I saw my first LIVE pata negra. This is the region of Spain where the best jamon comes from and the little piggies are so cute! Fed with acorns usually, the pigs have a supple looking grey fuzzy coat. I wanted to hug them and bite them at the same time! Is that weird?
Our first stop of the afternoon was the Pena de Francia, the highest point in the area, where we could look down on the places we were going to visit. The Camino Santiago travels over it and we saw some weary and cold pilgrims on the way. Here's the view from the top.
Yeah, I think the decision to drive up, rather than hike, was a good one. Next, we drove down into a small town called La Alberca. It was an absolutely adorable, fariytale-type town. We walked around and looked in a few shops and peeked at the cured meats and cheeses in the butchers. I could literally see Belle from Beauty and the Beast frolicking around, singing a song and holding a bread basket. We took a few pictures and then went into a bar on the main square.
We had their homemade wine, a croquette and a deep fried pig cheek (no doubt from a pig they raised and slaughtered themselves). This was the cheapest of the weekend, 2 euros total. As they say in Spain, sort of, in order to be hungry or itchy all you have to do is start eating or scratching. So, we went to a restaurant over-looking the square for lunch.
I had white bean stew, lamb with fries and homemade cuajada. So good! From there we drove on to Hervas, which is a village that is said to have an amazing Jewish Quarter with round houses. Inaki swore he went there with Karen and Nick once. However, we didn't find any round houses. Some of them curved a little, but that was it. The town was adorable though, and we didn't spend much time there, so I'd love to go back!
It was getting dark and our tiny car barely fit down the streets in the old town, so we figured we better get to our final destination before the moon was out. Next stop, Candelario and the Posada. We got there easily enough and wound through the streets to get to the hotel. It was an old house that had been converted into a B and B. Oiled dark wood beams, huge staircase, clean white linens, the works! We went out to get a bite and then hit the hay. As soon as we walked into the local bar, heads turned. I don't think they get a lot of tourists. Our last tapa of the night was a potato dish they make that is more or less taters cooked down to mash using the juices and oils from chorizo. Mmmmm.
The next morning, we woke up and groggily trudged downstairs and into the dining room. Our gracious host greeted us with 2 crystal glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice. He said to us, "so, did we come to breakfast hungry? I'm thinking you need more of a brunch than a breakfast right?" We nodded and, as he wrung his hands together, he described what he would bring us: 2 huge mugs of cafe con leche, a plate of cured meat (done on site and by his family!) which consisted of chorizo, head cheese and ham, fried eggs, 2 hunks of pan de pueblo and a chunk of bizcocho (a dense orange cake). We had left the camera in the room, unfortunately, but the food was amazing!
Full and ready to move a bit, we checked out (sadly) and went to hike the sierra of Bejar. Here are a few shots of Candelario and our hike.
After this, the trip got weird. We were starving after the 3 hour hike and decided to check out another region for lunch, on the way to our next stop, Segovia. Avila sounded good and we pulled off the highway into a small town, who's name I won't mention. Yet another storybook atmosphere - cathedral right off of a charming square, tiny, winding streets, a fountain -but we couldn't really find any people. It was a Monday afternoon, at around 3, so a little late for lunch, but the square was empty. We finally bumped into a couple ladies walking who told us there was a hotel down the way that should be open. We got there and a sign in the window said that they were across the street at another hotel. We went over there and walked into a big old house. A lady, all pale with a pageboy haircut and big dark eyes, popped out of the corner and asked us what we wanted. Inaki said, uh, is there a place we could eat around here? And she said, yeah, here! She took the table cloth from the only table in the room and whipped it in the air to get the dust off. She patted the pew next to it with her hand and invited us to sit.
I was a bit scared to stay, but Inaki, somewhat in a trance, sat down and we stayed. The lady, and a woman who appeared to be her mother, left the room and our eyes began to adjust. We were in an area that may have once been a patio, but now had many couches and a bar in it. There were wild boars and rifles all over the walls and TV blaring around the corner. I didn't really want to pose for a pic, but Inaki snapped one anyway.
The lady came back with menus and we ordered quickly. She must have paced back and forth by our table over 50 times during the meal and kept stopping at the door and peering out as if she was waiting for someone. It's sad because the food was delicious, but I couldn't enjoy it because it seemed that this gal was plotting to keep us there or trying to be sure we got out without being killed. For some reason it took FOREVER for the check to come and we high tailed it out of there before the ink could even dry on the receipt.
Of course, I had to pee and didn't want to in the place we had eaten. So, we were looking for a good place to stop on our way down the highway. We went by a few and finally pulled into a little bar for a coffee so I could go. All the shades were down, but there were a bunch of cars, so we felt safe. We shouldn't have though! We walked in and there were about 15 dudes at the bar, all ages. I looked over my shoulder and there were a few rooms with curtains up that had been closed. It was a whorehouse! Inaki looked at me and said, "so do you want a coffee?" I just shook my head and walked back out to the car. The region of Avila just isn't for us I guess.
The views on the drive were fab though!
We got to Segovia and decided to celebrate life. We checked into our hotel, just around the corner from the aqueduct, pretty much built around the time of Christ, and then hit the town.
We had the best time and ate so well, yet again! The next day, we walked through the park that used to be the mote around the castle, toured the castle, shopped and it was generally a great day. We loved Segovia.
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